Kissed by a Cowboy (11 page)

More teasers...

Excerpt from
Debra Clopton's Her Mule Hollow Cowboy

Buford snorted, sending Maddie Rose instantly
on alert. She knew the ornery hunk of steaks could make mincemeat
out of her if he chose.

He chose.

One powerful kick sent the gate slamming into
Maddie. A scream ripped from her as the bone-crunching impact
knocked her off her feet. Flying backwards like a rag doll, she
slammed into the pipe fence. Pain exploded, glazing everything as
it seared through her, dazing her.

Got to stay on your feet.

The gate swung away from her and instinct had
Maddie clawing, grasping for its rungs.

Stay off the ground or be trampled.

Bufford kicked the gate again, and this time,
Maddie's breath whooshed from her and she hit the ground
instantly.

Right in Buford's path.

She landed face first in the dirt. Wheezing,
she willed herself to move. To breathe.

But, as she'd been unable to help herself all
those years ago when she was a sickly abandoned baby, she was
helpless now.

Suddenly, boots attached to denim-clad legs
thudded to the ground between her and Buford.

"Yah," yelled the cowboy, planting himself
directly in the line of danger as the bull bolted from the trailer
like a runaway tank.

Where the cowboy had come from, Maddie didn't
know, but from her position he looked like a gift dropped straight
from heaven.

"Go on, now," he yelled, stomping and waving
his arms he held his ground.

Buford cut sharply to the right, away from
Maddie.

Relief surged through her as the cowboy
herded the bull into the holding pen then dropped to his knees
beside her.

"Here you go," he drawled, easing her to her
side. "Try to relax. Come on now, go easy."

She struggled to relax and the breaths got
easier, though there was a sharp edge to each one if she inhaled
too deeply. "Thank. You," she managed, smiling weakly.

He didn't smile back. Concern etched his
rugged, handsome face. "Glad I was here. How are you now?"

Maddie's pulse fluttered, she was mesmerized
by his penetrating indigo eyes. Flustered, she rubbed her ribs,
winching. "Like I've been kicked by a two-thousand-pound bull."

His soft chuckle sank over her like warm
honey.

"You may have broken some ribs," he said
kindly, then demanded, "What were you doing out here by yourself in
the first place?"

"Loading a bull," she retorted, humiliated.
This cowboy probably thought she was some greenhorn who didn't know
beans about bulls or cattle.

She struggled to sit up without groaning.
Honestly, she was feeling better—but who wouldn't? Her cowboy
rescuer would make any woman forget she'd been almost stomped to a
pulp—even her.

Those eyes of his were lethal weapons.

The guy was gorgeous—even oxygen deprived and
in pain as she'd been, she'd realized that immediately. Touchable
dark hair curled from beneath his straw hat and enhanced his firm,
chiseled jaw. His high cheekbones underlined those penetrating,
strength filled, blue eyes.

He flashed an enticing crooked grin. "You're
one tough lady, Maddie Rose."

Maddie got hung-up on that smile—suddenly
thinking about long, slow kisses... There was an understandable
delay in her fogged brain relaying the message that he knew her
name...

Read the rest in HER MULE HOLLOW COWBOY by
#1 Amazon bestselling author Debra Clopton - available March
15!

More teasers...

Excerpt from
Margaret Daley's Deadly Hunt

Tess Miller pivoted as something thumped
against the door. An animal? With the cabin's isolation in the
Arizona mountains, she couldn't take any chances. She crossed the
distance to a combination-locked cabinet and quickly entered the
numbers. After withdrawing the shotgun, she checked to make sure it
was loaded then started toward the door to bolt it, adrenaline
pumping through her veins.

Silence. Had she imagined the noise? Maybe
her work was getting to her, making her paranoid. But as she crept
toward the entrance, a faint scratching against the wood told her
otherwise. Her senses sharpened like they would at work. Only this
time, there was no client to protect. Just her own skin. Her
heartbeat accelerated as she planted herself firmly. She reached
toward the handle to throw the bolt.

The door crashed open before she touched the
knob. She scrambled backwards and to the side at the same time
steadying the weapon in her grasp. A large man tumbled into the
cabin, collapsing face down at her feet. His head rolled to the
side. His eyelids fluttered, then closed.

Stunned, Tess froze. She stared at the man's
profile.

Who is he?

The stranger moaned. She knelt next to him to
assess what was wrong. Her gaze traveled down his long length.
Clotted blood matted his unruly black hair. A plaid flannel shirt,
torn in a couple of places, exposed scratches and minor cuts. A rag
that had been tied around his leg was soaked with blood. Laying her
weapon at her side, she eased the piece of cloth down an inch and
discovered a hole in his thigh, still bleeding.

He's been
shot
.

Is he alone?
She bolted to her feet. Sidestepping his prone
body, she snatched up the shotgun again and surveyed the area
outside her cabin. All she saw was the sparse, lonely terrain. With
little vegetation, hiding places were limited in the immediate
vicinity, and she had no time to check further away. She examined
the ground to see which direction he'd come from. There weren't any
visible red splotches and only one set of large footprints coming
from around the side of the cabin. His fall must have started his
bleeding again.

Another groan pierced the early morning
quiet. She returned to the man, knelt, and pressed her two fingers
into the side of his neck. His pulse was rapid, thready, and his
skin was cold with a slight bluish tint.

He was going into shock.

Read the rest in DEADLY HUNT by #1 Amazon
bestselling author Margaret Daley - available March 15!

One more teaser...

Excerpt from
Camy Tang's - Necessary Proof

Jane Lawton nearly dropped
her steaming pot of Mac-N-Cheese at the sound of a powerful fist
knocking at her apartment door. "Coming!" She spooned the gooey,
bad-for-you goodness into a bowl, then ran some water in the pot in
the sink.

The urgent knocking sounded
again. Somehow it didn't sound like one of her neighbors, wanting
Jane's help with a computer problem. She looked through the
peephole.

She felt a sharp pulse at
the base of her throat. "Alex?" She opened the door.

Normally a walking Calvin
Klein ad, he now had a grim, serious cast to his face as he
hurriedly entered her apartment with a messenger bag slung across
one broad shoulder. "Quick, close the door."

"What's going on?" She
locked the deadbolt.

It frightened her that he
looked so different now, lacking his usual smile and dimples. "I
need your help, Jane."

She couldn't control the
bitterness that burned the back of her throat. It seemed that was
the only thing she was good for, helping the men in her life so
they could leave her and move on. She swallowed and said carefully,
"Doing what?"

He pulled a laptop from his
messenger bag. "There's information on this that I need, but I'm
not sure if there's any type of security protecting it."

"Whoa." Jane took a step
back. "You're saying that's not your laptop, and you want me to get
into it? What's going on?" She knew he had been in prison for a few
years, but she thought he'd put his illegal past behind
him.

He scrubbed his hand over
his high forehead. "It's not what it looks like."

"That makes it sound even
worse."

He exhaled and seemed to
study her. His intent, dark eyes made her squirm. She knew she'd
changed a lot in the past year. She'd only spoken to him once in
all that time, a few months ago at the party celebrating his
brother's engagement to Rachel, Jane's second cousin but as close
as a sister. After a minute or two of chit-chat, he had been quick
to leave her to speak to Detective Carter, which had given her a
pang even though she hadn't been in a sociable mood. What a
difference from when she and Alex had first met years ago. He had
seemed interested in her, but she'd been ...

She shoved the memories
aside. "I'm only going to ask this one more time. What's going
on?"

"I just ... I can trust
you, right?"

"Trust me with
what?"

Read the rest in NECESSARY PROOF by author
Camy Tang - available March 15!

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of brand-new novellas! FIRST KISSES will be available March 15. If
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About the
author

Lacy Williams grew up on a farm, which is
where her love of cowboys was born. In reality, she's married to a
right-brained banker (happily with three kiddos). She gets to
express her love of western men by writing historical romance. Her
books have finaled in the RT Book Reviews Reviewers' Choice Awards
(2012, 2013 & 2014), the Golden Quill and the Booksellers Best
Award.

Find Lacy on the web
at
http://www.lacywilliams.net
and
www.facebook.com/lacywilliamsbooks .